


The Good Place fanfics that I'm gonna regret

by baby_panda20



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Eleanor Shellstrop, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, No Smut, Songfic, Soulmates, Spoilers for the whole series!, Torture, but probably no elhani sorry, oneshots, whatever else i feel like writing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23626657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baby_panda20/pseuds/baby_panda20
Summary: This show has been one of my latest obsessions so I figured why not write for it? Send me requests if you like my content! I'll write anything but smut and suicide. I'm also not a big fan of non-canon ships but I'm 100% here for canonically bisexual Eleanor. Enjoy these although I'll regret them years later. Thanks for reading!
Relationships: Chidi Anagonye/Eleanor Shellstrop, Jianyu Li | Jason Mendoza/Janet (The Good Place), Michael (The Good Place) & Eleanor Shellstrop
Comments: 15
Kudos: 17





	1. All I've Ever Known

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello people of The Good Place fandom! I've been obsessed with The Good Place for a while and I finally gathered enough muse and time to conjure up a small oneshot! So far I have only written and published oneshots, so I think that's what I'll be sticking with for now unless I get an idea for a longer-form work and time on my hands to write it. Since this is a new fandom for me and new headspaces to enter (God Mike Schur why do you have to make your characters so three-dimensional?) I figured I'd start off a little easy with a songfic to help me understand the characters' mindsets. I'm sorry if it's not exactly what you were looking for in terms of portrayal, please know I'm determined to work on it because I really do love this show and I hope I can contribute more to it! Anyway, the song is "All I've Ever Known" from Hadestown (2019). If people like this and I develop some new ideas for more original content, I'll make more! Thank you so much for reading!

————————————————————————

_I was alone so long_

Eleanor Shellstrop had been alone her whole life.

_I didn't even know that I was lonely_

So much so that eventually the feeling grew on her, buried itself deep in her subconscious until she barely even realized it existed.

_Out in the cold so long_

Her parents were never there for her, constantly consumed in their own petty squabbles or three glasses of red wine before noon.

_I didn't even know that I was cold_

She learned how to take care of herself very quickly. She longed for the parents that all the other kids had until she convinced herself she didn't deserve that kind of affection. She didn't deserve to be vulnerable.

_Turned my collar to the wind_

So she locked her emotions up tight in a jail cell and lived her life not needing anything from anyone.

_This is how it's always been_

From childhood, she adopted her parents' selfish ways and hid her vulnerabilities behind a wall of sarcasm and manufactured bravado.

_All I've ever known is how to hold my own_

All she knew was how to fight for herself above anything else. She prioritized her needs, wants, and opinions over anyone else's feelings. She carried that attitude with her, even minutes before her untimely death.

_All I've ever known is how to hold my own_

Even after realizing that she clearly didn't belong among all the philanthropists and saints of the Good Place.

_But now I wanna hold you, too_

She took names and kicked ass...until she met him.

_You take me in your arms_

He took her in as his pupil and stayed with her no matter how much her selfish, dirtbag ways infuriated him. Because he knew he was flawed, too.

_And suddenly there's sunlight all around me_

"I was dropped in a cave...and you were my flashlight," she'd told him. If she'd only known how much he'd change her, how much they'd grow together through eight hundred different, impossible-seeming obstacle courses.

_Everything bright and warm_

His presence made her feel warm and tingly inside in a way none of her romantic interests had ever made her feel before.

_And shining like it never did before_

Everything, from the way his eyes lit up when she answered a question right in class to when they anticipated each others' needs, caused her heart to flutter. She couldn't remember ever smiling like a doofus so much on Earth.

_And for a moment I forget_

Although they'd forget each other hundreds of times with one cruel snap of Michael's fingers, it seemed like her soul never forgot the euphoria she felt when she was around him.  
Michael claimed soulmates weren't real. How, then, could he possibly explain the way the world seemed to get brighter whenever they're together?

_Just how dark and cold it gets_

He helped her change into the person she wanted to be, rather than the person she secretly dreaded becoming. He gave her what she'd wanted all her life: someone to hold onto.

_All I've ever known is how to hold my own_

As soon as they began to grow closer, she started to doubt everything she'd known. She never understood why, exactly, she was so willing for his help. Michael told her that in every single reboot, she found him and he always said yes.

_All I've ever known is how to hold my own_

Maybe she was scared of eternal damnation. Maybe she was scared of upsetting the balances of paradise.

_But now I wanna hold you_

Or maybe she was scared of spending the rest of eternity alone, stumbling blindly over stalagmites until God knows when.

_Now I wanna hold you_

She hugs him a little tighter each time they escape to Mindy's. But each time she sees Mindy's tape, she tells herself it's nothing. Eleanor Shellstrop is incapable of love. 

Or is she?

_Hold you close_

Each time she's forced to rewatch herself fall in love for the first time, then forced to realize just how many different times she's really fallen in love and how she'll forget all of them in a matter of minutes, her throat closes and she feels a pain in her chest that doesn't go away no matter what she does.

_I don't wanna ever have to let you go_

But if she thought forgetting him was painful, nothing could've prepared her for watching him walk away with Michael knowing he would come back forgetting all they'd been through. The reality of it all hit her like a ton of bricks that night.

_Now I wanna hold you, hold you tight_

The more she ran into him in "her neighborhood" and painted on a brave face for the integrity of the experiment, the more her heart sank.

_I don't wanna go back to the lonely life_

When she finally got him back, she thought she had him forever, until he told her he was ready to leave the Good Place forever. From the moment she began to notice his face fall a little at the end of every day, she convinced herself that she'd be fine on her own like she was on Earth. But she just couldn't.

————————————————————————  
_I don't know how or why_

Chidi thought he was a good person until he found himself being tortured in paradise time and time again. After a while, he felt he didn't deserve to be there anymore.

_Or who am I that I should get to hold you?_

He didn't deserve to meet Eleanor. To know Eleanor. To love Eleanor.

_But when I saw you all alone against the skies_

But every time she came to him begging for moral guidance, her eyes masking a kind of fear he couldn't describe, he knew it was his duty to help her. He was the only one who could truly see through the cracks in her facade from the very beginning.

_Like I'd known you all along_

Even when he didn't remember who she really was, when all she was to him was slightly-cryptic-but-also-kind-of-attractive-but-no-way-she's-literally-an-immortal-being, he began to notice the way her expression lost a little bit of its Good Place enthusiasm whenever they crossed paths. The way her eyes glossed over ever so slightly as she turned to walk away from him caused a faint twinge in his soul that he couldn't identify.

_I knew you before we met_

Over and over again, for years upon years, she'd evoked feelings in him that he couldn't quite pinpoint, no matter how many books he'd read in search of the answer.

_And I don't even know you yet_

He couldn't find the answer. Did he deserve to know, or was this just some captivating afterlife secret that only the immortal beings could understand?

_All I know is you're someone I have always known_

All his life he'd been searching for the answer to everything. But this was one question he couldn't find the answer to...until its ocean-blue eyes were staring him right in the face.

There is no "answer"...but Eleanor is the answer.

————————————————————————  
_All I know is you're someone I have always known_

All she knew was that she had to find him.  
All he knew was that he had to help her.

_And I don't even know you_

Nothing else mattered.

_Now I wanna hold you_

If they were together, they were unstoppable. They could literally save the universe. They balanced each other out perfectly.

_Hold you close_

His touch chilled her fiery personality. Her touch filled his cold, logic-based personality with a warmth and openness that neither of them had ever felt before. Finding each other was the only way to access it.

_I don't ever wanna have to let you go_

So although they were already dead, it killed them both to let him forget everything that night. She had no clue how she was going to make it on her own, and he had no clue what the future held for him.

_Suddenly the sunlight_

But even without her flashlight by her side, she still found her way.  
Meanwhile, he forged his own future on a completely different path that still somehow ended up revolving around her.

_Bright and warm_

Even when they weren't physically together, they were still united, subconsciously linked in a way that even the all-knowing beings couldn't explain. Whether they were in the Good Place, the Bad Place, on Earth, or in a literal boundless void, they still came back to each other.

_Suddenly I'm holding the world in my arms_

And just knowing this made them stronger than any absurd hurdle that the Bad Place tried to throw at them.

_Say that you'll hold me forever_

They stayed together through hell and back, finally making it to where they could be together for eternity. The last thing she wanted was for him to leave her forever. But she knew he had to.

_Say that the wind won't change on us_

"Relationships are stupid. You're scared you're never gonna have a real one, and then when you do, you're scared it's gonna go away," she'd admitted tearfully to him what felt like eons ago. She wished that she didn't have to worry about the future after she reached paradise, but that wasn't how the world was meant to work.

_Say that we'll stay with each other_

She made him promise not to leave her. But hearing the words come out of his mouth only made her feel better for a minute until the immense guilt of forcing him to stay weighed down on her. 

_And it will always be like this_

She may always have him next to her, but he will always be dissatisfied with the eventual monotony. He was ready to go now.

_I'm gonna hold you forever_

He gave her the calendar to remember him by, and while it wasn't the same as being able to hold him for real, she could still feel his presence around her and the warmth in her soul that lingered with her for eternity every time she saw his face.

_The wind will never change on us_

"What if we don't worry about whatever comes next?" he'd responded all those Bearimies ago. She was terrified of losing him for years, but finally letting him make his own decisions made her realize that she could be on her own without being lonely.

_As long as we stay with each other_

Eleanor's not worried anymore. She knows she still has him. Their essences coexist in the fabric of the universe; alive, dead, or otherwise. Now she can exist contently, the wave of calmness finally washing over her.

_Then it will always be like this_

And when she finally walks through the door, she follows in his footsteps. Her light shines brightly, glowing in the souls of people who feel lost, hopeless, confused. Like they've been dropped in a cave with no way out.

Eleanor Shellstrop may have been alone her whole life, but she was never lonely. She always had him. He always had her. And no matter what, it would always be like this.


	2. I’ll Always Remember Us This Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This oneshot is a mix of canon and my own version of the plot, based on the prompt “Season 3 Eleanor watches four reboots where Michael was wicked to Eleanor and one where he wasn’t.” (set in S3E7: “The Worst Possible Use of Free Will”).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! I know it's been a while but I got this prompt suggested to me when I published my first chapter in this book about 4 months ago (hehe whoops) and I’ve been working on it bit by bit since then! So sorry this took so long; this is definitely the longest oneshot I’ve written by FAR and I also lost an entire section of about 1500 words at one point, which really hindered my progress. Anyway, enough excuses. Thank you @Serena_Rose for this amazing prompt! I had a lot of fun coming up with different scenarios and I hope y'all enjoy! 
> 
> (Disclaimer: I don’t know how this oneshot got to be this long but for my sanity’s sake I think I’ll stick with shorter posts from now on)

"Come on, man, let's go! We only have a few hours until we have to pick the rest of the gang up from the airport, so fire up Janet's memory gizmo already!" Eleanor stared impatiently up at Michael, her small frame tense and antsy as she tried to pry his attention away from a Jeff Foxworthy book in the empty public library. 

"Eleanor, listen to me. Flooding your brain with memories of the afterlife is dangerous! In one of the reboots, you and Chidi were in love. Can't you just take my word for it?" Michael sighed exasperatedly, hoping against hope that maybe she'd let the issue go. But if he knew her (which he did — he knew everything there was to know about Eleanor Shellstrop), he knew that once she set her mind on something, there was little possibility of shifting her focus. 

"No, dude, I can't. My screwed up relationship with my parents made me believe that I could never really love anyone. I need to see it for myself. Those are my memories and I want them back," she responded, her eyes filled with a powerful sense of urgency and determination that he couldn't bring himself to resist.

After the unsettling side effects of Janet's memory gizmo wore off, Michael reluctantly began to show her a compilation of little moments from various reboots. Reboot #51, where Chidi tenderly brushed his hand against Eleanor's for the first time, guiding her fingers as he proofread her essay on Kierkegaard's  _ Either/Or _ . Reboot #63, where neither of them could fall asleep after having to hide away more chaos that Eleanor's presence brought to the neighborhood, so they stayed up and talked about anything and everything until they finally fell asleep. Reboot #81, where Chidi and Eleanor went on a picnic in the pouring rain and somehow managed to have the time of their lives. Reboot #119, where, after Eleanor had pushed him into the lake, she realized how much she meant to him and suddenly she saw herself cupping his face in her hands and kissing him gratefully. 

Suddenly, the scene changed to them lying in bed together at Mindy St. Claire's house and she watched herself say "I love you" for the first time in her life...or not-life. She pulled the small, glowing devices out of her ears abruptly and set them on the table in front of her.

"There, you've seen it for yourself, you're capable of human love. Now do you believe me?" Michael asked, noting how she avoided his gaze, her eyes locked to the floor. 

Eleanor hesitated before responding. "I...no. Those aren't  _ my _ memories. Those are just little puppets on strings acting out everything that  _ you  _ tell them to. Of course everything I see is gonna be all fairytales and unicorn vomit because that's what you want me to see. Show me something real."

"Those reboots  _ were _ real, Eleanor. No matter what I did, you two always found each other. I may be a demon, but the one thing I can't create is authentic, passionate human interaction. That was the whole point of the experiment."

Eleanor narrowed her gaze suspiciously, leaning back a little in her chair. "Those four reboots you just showed me...how did they end?" Her voice was uncharacteristically small, her usual bravado struggling to present itself through her fear of seeing herself in such vulnerable situations with a man she never thought she could love. 

Michael froze in place momentarily, trying to think of any possible way to avoid the inevitable: showing her his true self. He wasn't quite sure if she was just denying it all to protect herself from getting hurt or if she really didn't trust him, but he had to convince her somehow. He realized that the only way to do so would be to answer her question, to show her how they really ended. On the other hand, Eleanor was already wary of him, and showing her how cruel he used to be every time they had figured out his gambit might not be the best way to earn her trust.

"They ended like they always did, with me rebooting you. There's no need to-"

"Show me, please," she demanded, her voice breaking as she picked her head up in an attempt to intimidate him. Michael muttered something under his breath as she inserted the device back into her ears. 

"Fine...Reboot #51," he acquiesced as he lazily swiped and tapped a few times on the screen in front of him until she was transported into Michael's office, seeing herself and Chidi sitting across from him. 

_ Chidi was glued to his chair, his face obviously uncomfortable, as Eleanor slowly stood up from her chair to seem more authoritative. _

_ "Listen here, we know about your whole little scheme. Mindy St. Claire filled us in, she told us everything, and we know how it's all failed over and over again. How many times now? Twenty? Thirty?  _ Fifty _?" Eleanor drew out the last word for dramatic effect.  _

_ "Obviously, making you climb the same mountain over and over again would be a pretty damn good form of torture, wouldn't it?" she squeezed Chidi's hand to evoke a response out of him, but he could only manage a quick nod. She knew he hated lying, but right now, it seemed like the only option to save their asses. They'd devised this plan together back at Mindy's; Eleanor may have been the one chosen to do all the talking, but Chidi was the one who came up with the foundations of the plan. He'd suggested using some sort of reverse psychology to trick Michael into saving their souls, but his moral compass kept him from developing the plan any further.  _

_ Luckily, Eleanor had the idea to make Michael think that he was the one in the Bad Place, hoping to freak him out enough to call off the whole operation. Sure, the details weren't all that specific and there wasn't much thought put into exactly  _ how _ they'd get from Point A to Point B, but with Eleanor's vast life experience in deception and Chidi's brains and sheer will to not be doomed to hell forever, they believed in each other. They believed that maybe this one would work and they could spend eternity together in a better place.  _

_ "So, you say we're in the Bad Place, but what if  _ we're  _ the demons who keep coming back to torture you? We may be in the Bad Place getting tortured out of our skulls, but you're right there with us, buddy. So give it up, don't force yourself into this same thing over and over and over and-" _

_ Michael suddenly cut her off, cackling with a malicious, toothy smile that made the couple fear for their souls. "You do know I'm aware that you're just trying to buy time to come up with a better plan, right? Who even came up with this one?! Jason?! I've seen all your stupid ideas, even the time you tried to seduce me, which was Fifty Shades of Yuck. At least the two of you actually worked together on this one for the first time, even though it's clear you're making your little boyfriend miserable, Shellstrop." _

_ Eleanor scoffed, pretending not to know the jig was up. "Come on, man, it's so obvious! Making us miserable is making you even more miserable!" _

_ "Even if torturing you idiots was making me miserable, it wouldn't matter. Demons thrive off of misery. Ooh, I'm starting to feel it kick in!" he hesitated slightly. "From you two...not from me." _

_ "We're not miserable. We've been stuck in this shirtshow together plenty of times, but this time, we're getting out of it together." Chidi nodded again in agreement and Eleanor could feel his fingers tightening around hers, more lovingly this time. He didn't want to let her go.  _

_ "Because the power of teamwork will magically solve everything!" Michael mocked, sticking his fake human tongue out. "Grow up. This isn't Camp Friendship, where five-year-old Eleanor locked the head counselor in an outhouse and they had to call the fire department because the lock broke, but by the time they'd gotten him out, Eleanor had already abandoned the group and was hiding out on a bus in an attempt to sneak back home. This is the Bad Place, and there's no escaping your own fate. I hate to reboot you and make you forget that gem of a memory, but I guess I have to now," Michael said, rolling his eyes as he raised his hand from his desk to beside his head. _

_ Before Eleanor and Chidi could protest, Michael snapped his fingers the same way he had for the past fifty reboots. _

Earth-Eleanor's vision went a blinding white until Earth-Michael reached across the table and pulled the devices out of her ears. 

"There. You've seen it with your own eyes now. You two worked together to outsmart me because you were determined to spend the rest of eternity by each others' sides. How much more romantic can that get?"

"Dude, that's not love, that's just some version of me trying to keep us both from being locked in flaming cages with millions of acid hornets. Not gonna cut it," Eleanor huffed as she leaned back in her chair so it tilted slightly. 

"As a demon, I will never truly understand how human love works, but putting it all on the line for someone else's sake seems pretty close to me," Michael sighed, folding his hands.

"You said it yourself, that whole scene was just like Camp Friendship, and even though it was shut down six years ago because of asbestos in the cabins, that place was crawling with smiling idiots who made me wanna throw up in the lake every time I saw them. In the  _ lake.  _ I don't know how much you know about real love, but real love doesn't make you wanna do that." Eleanor gritted her teeth, already putting the devices back in her ears before Michael could counter her argument any more. "I'm not buying it. Show me something else."

_ A few quick taps on Michael's tablet later, Afterlife-Eleanor was back in Michael's office for Reboot #63, somehow looking less prepared than before, although Chidi appeared slightly less frenetic this time, standing by her side in support of whatever insane plan they decided on this time. _

_ Michael rolled his eyes as Eleanor explained his own plan to him yet again, although this time it wasn't nearly as well put together. It was clear neither of them had discovered the full truth just yet. He barely held back a chuckle as he watched her struggle to wrap her puny little human mind around the whole ordeal of choosing who has to go to the Bad Place.  _

_ "Chidi and I...we talked for a long, long time last night, and we’ve figured out everything that you were up to. Or, wait, do you already know that because you've been spying on us?! What if Janet is secretly some kind of robot security camera that you've dressed up as a girl?!"  _

_ "Not a robot, and not a girl," Janet chimed in from the back corner of the room. _

_ "Whatever, man. Anyway, the point is that we decided that I have to go to the Bad Place to save Chidi...and Tahani and Jason." Eleanor stated flatly, hiding her hands behind her back so the demon couldn't see them trembling. _

_ "What?! Eleanor, that's not what we talked about at all!" Chidi interjected, his eyebrows creasing with concern. He could feel the familiar beginnings of a stomachache, but he was determined to suppress it to stay strong for Eleanor. _

_ "Chidi, I have to go. If you've taught me anything, it's that you have to do what's right for the greater good. And if I'm the problem here, I can't stay. You don't have to be dragged into my mess. I've gotta take one for the team." _

_ "I want to come with you. You and I, we've already overcome so much together. Who says we have to stop now?" _

_ Eleanor turned slowly to face Chidi, taking a small breath. "I've never felt this way about anyone before. The way that I feel about you. But you deserve to spend your eternity with people who can make you the happiest you've ever been. Face it, I can't do that for you." _

_ "I'm already the happiest I've ever been...here, with you, even as we're literally staring certain doom in the face. You can't go alone. I won't let you." Chidi stared at her sincerely, his eyes slightly glassy as he took her hand. Eleanor's gaze shifted down to their interlocked fingers, her eyes widening.  _

_ They both fell silent, the world around them slowly fading away. _

_ "Oh, boo! That's the best you've got?!" Michael jeered, throwing popcorn kernels from a striped bucket that Janet must have summoned at the couple. "Do you want to win the Oscar for 'Most Nauseating Couple' here? Is that what you're going for?"  _

_ His taunts brought Eleanor and Chidi back into reality and back into remembering their current situation. Although this time, Michael seemed a lot more cruel than either of them remembered. _

_ "Come on, numb nuts, this shouldn't be that hard! You both think you have a say in this, but you never did! News flash: you’re already in the Bad Place, idiots! You've been here all along! I've been torturing you with a fake neighborhood. And just so you're aware, whatever kind of 'star-crossed lovers' bullshirt you're trying to pull to save yourselves isn't going to make me pity you. I'm a demon; in our world, there's no such thing as remorse." Michael sighed exasperatedly, propping his feet up on his desk. "Maybe take 64 will get you that Oscar nomination," he said as his fingers clicked together and the white flash consumed the screen yet again.  _

Earth-Eleanor opened her eyes, keeping the devices in her ears as they shut down. 

"Do you see it now?" Michael asked, his tone harsher than before.

"'Star-crossed lovers', really?!" Eleanor mocked, drawing air quotes around the tacky phrase. "That's not a real thing, that only exists in Hallmark movies and  _ Romeo and Juliet. _ I should know, I've binged enough Hallmark movies on my couch on Christmas...and for a few months after Christmas. And I saw the one Leonardo DiCaprio movie remake of  _ Romeo and Juliet  _ three years ago when I was wasted enough to think that it was actually a movie by Shakespeare. This ain't my first rodeo." 

"Are we just going to ignore the part where you said that you've never felt that way about anyone and that you were willing to go to hell so Chidi could be happy?"

"The movie wasn't even that good, either. I mean, how can you turn down Paul Rudd for Leonardo DiCaprio?! Come on, Claire Danes, Leo was right in his heartthrob phase and he  _ still _ didn't measure up."

"I guess we are." Michael said disappointedly, waiting for Eleanor to guide herself back on topic.

"Whatever. You're not proving anything. Like I said, you already knew what was going to happen 'cause you were the one controlling my decisions as part of your little experiment." 

"I may have been controlling your circumstances, but I was never controlling your decisions. Like in the first ever reboot, where you confessed in front of everyone that you didn't belong. There was no way I could have predicted that."

"Aren't demons supposed to know everything?"

"In theory, yes, but that's never been true. Demons are deeply flawed, not in the same way that humans are, but we barely have any morals or ethical guidelines. The whole experiment was meant to torture you. Hearing you say to each other that you were the happiest you'd ever been in my neighborhood was like a knife in the area where my gut would be. Why would I manipulate you two into saying that?" Michael paused, taking in Eleanor's expression. Her world-class BS detector was starting to shut down; that's why she's deflecting. His words were beginning to get through to her. 

"How about I show you another one? Maybe this one will convince you," he asked, hopeful that he could get her to realize what she was doing. 

"Fine, go ahead, but good luck changing my mind on the whole Paul and Leo thing." Michael ignored her, already configuring the tablet to display the memory of Reboot #81.

_ When Eleanor’s vision returned, she was sitting bolt upright in bed, her breath escaping her and her forehead lined in sweat, obviously the effects of some guilt-induced nightmare. She couldn’t even remember much about what it was she dreamed about.  _ Ariana Grande...flying shrimp...giraffes? Why? Where was it all coming from? 

_ As soon as Eleanor regained control over her breathing, she slowly rose out of bed, suppressing a small scream as a large portrait of a melting clown stared her in the face. She tiptoed quietly out of her room and towards the kitchen to get some water, stopping in her tracks when she noticed Chidi asleep on the couch. A magazine of a promiscuously-dressed Kourtney Kardashian was sprawled across his stomach, slowly rising and falling to the rhythm of his breathing. He really had been studying up on the Kardashians, and all for her.  _

_ Eleanor smiled a little at the sight as she turned the corner towards the kitchen counter. However, in her distracted and groggy state, she overestimated just how far away the counter was, and suddenly her foot collided roughly with the linoleum edge, a loud  _ bang  _ echoing throughout the simple cottage. Eleanor bit back a stream of filtered curses, trying not to wake Chidi, but the noise alone was enough to make his eyes flutter open suspiciously fast for someone who was supposed to be sound asleep.  _

_ “Eleanor? What are you doing up…?” Chidi mumbled, his poor acting quite obvious to Eleanor, even in her shaken state.  _

_ “I could say the same to you,” Eleanor deflected, rubbing her eyes slowly. _

_ “Um, just reading...whatever this is. Vogue? Elle?” Chidi took the magazine off of his stomach, shutting it and placing it on the table next to him.  _

_ “Come on, you and I both know you weren’t really asleep.” Eleanor approached him slowly, sitting on the end of the couch as Chidi pulled his legs in to make room for her. As much as Chidi wished he had Eleanor’s ability to distract people from talking about his emotions, it was hopeless. His expression read like an open book.  _

_ “Fine...I was just...thinking.” _

_ “Like always,” Eleanor scoffed soundlessly, eliciting a small chuckle from Chidi in return. “Which old dead guy was it this time?” _

_ “None of them, actually...I was just thinking...you know, about everything that’s happened since we got here. For years, I’ve been trying to discover what happens after you die. And now I’m here, finally, and...I don’t know how to process it all. I mean, they clearly said this was supposed to be paradise from the beginning.”  _

_ Eleanor’s expression fell ever so slightly as she averted her gaze to a random spot on the floor. “I know what you mean.”  _

_ Chidi paused, expecting her to say more, but she fell silent. He took a step back and tried again, his stomach starting to tie in knots. “Oh, no, I mean, it’s not  _ all  _ bad! I…” He sighed softly, taking Eleanor’s hand in his to bring her attention back to him. “I don’t love all the hiding and the lying, but there’s so much more than that. You’ve made my life a million times more interesting than it ever was on Earth. You’re special, Eleanor. Sometimes, in a weird, ironic way, it seems like you’re the only thing that’s right about this place.” _

_ Eleanor’s eyes widened and she subconsciously squeezed his hand, not knowing how else to respond. Nobody’s ever said anything remotely similar to what Chidi just told her before. The biggest compliment she ever got on Earth was the time she blacked out drunk one night in college and slept with a stripper from some nightclub and she told Eleanor that she “had the right figure to fit in the business” the morning after.  _

_ “I’ve had to make some of the biggest decisions of my life here. Helping you, lying to Michael...I even get a stomach ache just from looking at the sheer number of frozen yogurt flavors! It’s like hell every time I walk in there!” _

_ “Wait...say that last part again.” Eleanor froze in place, squeezing his hand more urgently now. _

_ “It’s like hell every time I walk in there?” _

_ Eleanor suddenly pulled her hand away, standing up slowly and beginning to pace around the couch. “Holy forking shirtballs...Chidi, I think I know what’s going on here.  _ This _ is the Bad Place!” _

_ “What?! Eleanor, that’s-” _

_ “Hear me out,” Eleanor cut him off, pointing at the air as if to silence him. “You just said that you’ve had to make all these major decisions, which is almost like...like torture. And I’ve had to hide who I am and surround myself with hob-knobbing socialites who are all better than me and listen to them bragging about their stupid humanitarian efforts and dish about the top charities for hours. If that’s not torture, I don’t know what is!” _

_ Eleanor paused in her rant to catch her breath, neglecting to process just how insane everything she just said sounded out loud.  _

_ “What if Janet is some sort of robot overlord controlling Michael?! Or what if Michael’s the one behind it all? I bet they’re all spies — Vicky, Bambadjan, that weird guy with the glasses.They’re all forking with us, it’s so obvious!”  _

_ “Eleanor, it’s late, really, you should-” _

_ “Chidi, please, you have to trust me on this. It all adds up! We have to tell Michael!” _

_ “Tell him what, exactly?” _

_ “That...that we’ve figured out their whole plan! We have to move fast!” _

_ “Eleanor-“ _

_ Eleanor turned to face him, taking his hands in hers. “Chidi, I’m doing this to save our souls. Who knows what’ll happen if we let them keep doing this to us?” She hesitated for a second, her tone much more serious. “Maybe I deserve to be here...but you don’t. You took me in as your student when I gave you reason after reason not to trust me. You stuck up for me when no one else did. Just that by itself shows that you belong in the real Good Place.” Eleanor cupped her hands under Chidi’s chin briefly before pulling away, her attention shifting back to the door. “Now come on, there’s gotta be some way out of here!” _

_ Before Chidi could stop her, Eleanor was following her impulses and racing towards the door. Little did she know, Michael had already heard their whole conversation, and was waiting outside for the moment the front door would open. Suddenly, Eleanor found herself slamming headfirst into his peach-colored dress shirt.  _

_ “Now where are you off to in such a rush, Eleanor?” Michael smiled warmly, although he seemed to tower menacingly over her barely-five-foot-one figure. Chidi wanted to chime in from a safe distance, but before he could even open his mouth, Eleanor began her spiel once again with more energy than a toddler in a candy store, barely coming up for air so she could get her epiphany across without leaving a second of dead air for her to realize just how insane she sounded. Eleanor had always been one to confront her problems directly without considering the possible repercussions, and that still rang true even at the risk of being banished to eternal damnation.  _

_ When she finished explaining her theory, she glanced up at Michael, anticipating his reaction, but his expression was unmoving. Internally, the demon was debating how best to handle the situation. The logical side of his brain told him to keep the facade up. She clearly had zero proof, it was late at night, and she had yet to figure out that she could escape to the Medium Place with Chidi. That part was always Michael’s favorite to watch; although they were out of his jurisdiction, just ten minutes at Mindy’s house was a healthy dose of a weird, medium version of torture, and he didn’t even have to put in any of the effort. But something inside of him — base instincts or a sadistic desire to see the pair tied up with ropes made of fire ants and forced to eat raw animal organs — suddenly took the wheel. _

_ Old habits die hard for demons; they’ve been deeply rooted in their traditional ways for countless Jeremy Bearimies, so much so that they’ve all developed an intrinsic need to see someone in intense physical pain that must be quenched, almost like a twisted form of hunger or thirst. That was part of the reason Michael wanted to try his experiment in the first place: to rid all demons of those urges so they could accept new, modernized forms of torture and flourish as a species and as a section of the afterlife. With more and more humans arriving in the afterlife in the past 500 years, the Bad Place was in need of an upgrade, and Michael was determined to deliver it. _

_ He was honestly surprised he lasted this long. Maybe it meant his experiment was working. Or maybe he was just getting bored of controlling the four humans like a little girl playing with dolls. Reboot #82, he’d try something new. But for now, he had to tear this attempt up and start over before he lost complete control. No amount of memory wiping would ever fully erase the image of a fire squid gone feral.  _

_ “Wow. Wowww, you two numbskulls think you’re  _ so _ smart, putting all the pieces together. How do you not get this by now?! You can’t possibly escape me, you can’t escape your own fate. Face it, idiots, whatever pointless bond the two of you developed is a load of bull. You’re both just going to end up tortured for eternity one of these days, so why even bother trying to make sense of it all?” Michael cackled wickedly, venom dripping from every word.  _

_ “You’re no good for one another, anyway. Eleanor’s too absorbed in this ‘every man for himself’ crap to even think straight and Chidi’s just a complete mess of a human being who can’t make one decision to save his life! Literally! So next time, let whatever it is you delusional nincompoops think you have die and just let me have this! For once, just one time, don’t ruin this for me!” The demon was yelling by this point, the power in his voice making the thin walls shake with more force than if an earthquake was happening right outside their door. Michael paused for a moment, taking in the shocked and heartbroken looks on the pair’s faces.  _

_ By now, Chidi was standing beside Eleanor protectively, and Eleanor had taken Chidi’s hand instinctively. Holding his hand just felt right in the moment, like no matter what was about to happen to them or what Michael said, he was still right there by her side, and that was all that mattered. Chidi hadn’t flinched for a second when her hand found his; instead, he began running his thumb lightly over her knuckles. He regretted not kissing her to keep her from opening that door, from saying anything to Michael, and now he realized he may very well never kiss her again. He wondered if she came to the same conclusion. Judging by the look on her face, it seemed like maybe she had.  _

_ It was convenient knowing they’d forget it all in a few seconds, so Michael took the time to absorb the rawness of it all like a form of sustenance, feeling strangely satiated by their fear. His innate desires satisfied, he snapped his fingers coldly, ready to reassess and try again.  _

_ The last thing Earth-Eleanor saw before returning to reality was Michael’s malicious smile and the way he bared his teeth with a cruel, primal sense that she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. _

“Whoa...that...was intense.” Eleanor was at a genuine loss for words, wondering why Michael would showcase that side of himself to her. 

“I told you, Eleanor, I didn’t want to have to do this,” Michael replied solemnly. “I...didn’t want you to see how cruel I used to be. It’s...it’s all embarrassing. But I’m different now, I promise. I’ll swear on a Bible like you humans do.”

“Listen, I’m not mad at you. I mean, how could I be? But in what universe does that prove I was capable of love?”

“I could tell you that it was because of that entire conversation you had with Chidi before I showed up. How you cared for him enough to feel remorse when he said he was doubting everything. How you empathized with him and were willing to risk everything so he could have his chance at the real Good Place. Even the way you reached out for each other should at least tell you something. But you probably wouldn’t believe me after that whole display.” 

“Well, it doesn’t, and I don’t. It’s not even because of whatever that was, it’s just...let me see another one,” Eleanor replied briskly, folding her arms across her chest in an attempt to seem frustrated and tough, but Michael picked up on the way she seemed to be shrinking in her seat and realized the gesture wasn’t one of resentment, but one of protection. She was still holding back from saying what she was really thinking, and understandably so. 

“All right. If this one can’t convince you that you’re capable of love, then I don’t know what will.” Michael cringed internally, knowing that saying that would make Eleanor feel like even more of a lost cause, but proceeding anyway. He fired up Reboot #119, hopeful that this one may be the one that would break down her walls.

_ Once again, Earth-Eleanor saw herself and Chidi in Michael’s office, their hands intertwined between their seats. This time, they were determined to do this together instead of one of them taking the lead. Eleanor had led most of the confrontations in the earlier reboots, but Chidi gradually began to tell his side of the story more and more, his confidence growing with each new attempt. _

_ Michael sat on the opposite side of the desk, his hands folded on its surface. He was starting to lose hope by this point; he was never completely sure if everything had fully recovered from his “slip-up” in Reboot 81. His lax posture in his seat and his initial refusal to make direct eye contact with the humans made his increasing levels of apathy more obvious.  _

_ “All right, let’s get this over with, so listen, guys-”  _

_ Chidi suddenly cut him off, adopting a sharp tone that even Michael flinched at. “No you listen! We just went to Mindy St. Claire’s and when she wasn’t trying to trick us into having a threesome, she filled us in on everything you’ve been up to here.”  _

_ The demon was determined to keep his head level, leaning back nonchalantly in his chair. “Oh yeah?” _

_ Eleanor couldn’t resist chiming in. “We know this is like the hundredth time you’ve tried to torture us. But this time it’s different, because...we’re in love.” She turned slightly in her seat to face Chidi, her breath hitching in disbelief for a small moment as she glanced down at their hands, raising them so Michael could see them. “And love is stronger than anything you can throw at us!” she declared, her voice filled with determination.  _

_ Michael was admittedly thrown a bit off guard at that; he had never heard Eleanor say out loud that she was in love with Chidi, nor did he think that she was smart enough to realize that he loved her in return. The shock lasted only for a second, replaced by his typical sarcastic and dismissive persona.  _

_ “No it’s not. Love is stronger than anything I can throw at you? I could throw an elephant at you. You think a thrown elephant wouldn’t crush you because of love?” Michael scoffed, taking a quick second to mentally appreciate the image he had just created.  _

_ Eleanor kept her gaze directed at Chidi, her tone softening slightly. “It’s okay. No matter what he does, we will find each other, and we will help each other, because we’re soulmates,” she insisted, a half smile spreading across her face. He returned the smile for a moment before being rudely interrupted by Michael blowing a raspberry in their general direction.  _

_ “Oh, come on! There’s no such thing as soulmates, ya dingus! I made it up.” _

_ “What?” the pair said in near perfect unison. _

_ “How can you two be this naïve? Have you really believed everything I said this whole time? I mean, seriously, I put clowns in your house because you hate them. I forced you to choose the lizard, and then I made that lizard run away!” _

_ “But if soulmates aren’t real, then how does that explain-” Chidi began to ask before Michael interjected, restraining a cackle as he mocked Chidi’s voice cracks. _

_ “How does that explain- It’s not that difficult. You aren’t soulmates. Soulmates don’t exist. Case closed.” _

_ “Then what are we?” Eleanor asked, anger tightening her throat as if it were being squeezed by an iron fist.  _

_ “A couple of bozos, that’s what you are!” Michael exclaimed, oddly proud of his lame zinger. “I made it all up, don’t you understand that?! I created this place, built it from the ground up! You all were just stupid enough to believe everything I planted in your hollow little skulls!” _

_ “Mindy told us we’d been to her house over a hundred times. How stupid do you think we are if we’ve kept beating you?” Eleanor challenged, leaning forward in her seat. _

_ “Okay, so maybe it’s taken more tries than I’d planned, but that doesn’t mean you’re intelligent. I’m a demon, for Pete’s sake! An eternal being! All it will take is just one more try and then I’ll have your pathetic souls resting in the palm of my hand! You two really are hopeless, don’t you see that? You think love will save you?! Love is the most worthless thing ever created in the history of mankind. And after all that you both have been through with love on Earth, you should know that by now. I mean come on, Chidi could never keep a girl for more than a week because he couldn’t even decide where to take them on their second date! And Eleanor...don’t even get me started. You’ve never cared about anyone but yourself, how could you possibly think you can even begin to comprehend what love is?! It just...infuriates me how you’re so dependent on one another. Next time, I  _ will  _ keep you two as far apart as possible, no matter what it takes.” _

_ “Next time?” Chidi asked hesitantly. _

_ “Duh, of course next time. Obviously, I just have to reboot you.” Michael leaned back casually in his chair, dangling his fingers over the two of them as he relished in their reactions once again. The click of his fingers rippled in Earth-Eleanor’s ears as her eyes flew open. _

Aside from a small gasp as she returned to reality, she sat in silence refusing to meet the demon’s curious gaze. She wished more than anything that she didn’t keep insisting to see more. Was she truly ready to see herself say those three little words? Was Michael right? Did she truly not deserve to be in love? The longer the painful silence persisted, the more she got lost in her own head. 

“Eleanor?” Michael’s voice was laced with genuine concern, and Eleanor couldn’t possibly believe this was the same being that she’d just seen tear her and Chidi to shreds just to erase it all in the blink of an eye and try again with new tactics that stung like poison and burned holes in her already tainted heart. She gripped the table in front of her until her knuckles turned white. For a moment, Michael was concerned he may have actually broken her brain. But suddenly, Eleanor broke the silence, her whole body rigid with tension.

“You know what?! I’ve figured out your little game, for real this time. For just a second, I thought maybe...maybe I could love someone. But really, it was just you manipulating me into _thinking_ I loved someone.”

Michael froze, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. “Hang on, how did you draw that conclusion? I showed you  _ four separate times _ where you fell in love with Chidi, and each time you cared about him more and more. Even when you were the most raw and exposed, you still held onto each other like lifelines.”

His words made her cringe internally, but still, she kept going. “No, man, I didn’t. All I saw was you pulling a bunch of strings to convince us that we were in love, just to pull the rug out from under us and mock us like it was all some sick joke. You said it yourself in that last stupid reboot, you made it all up.”

“Okay, that’s fair, I did put you and Chidi in close proximity in most of the reboots, but that was only because I needed you to drive each other mad. It seemed like it made sense at the time, but all it did was forge a positive relationship between you two that only grew stronger the harder I tried to keep you apart. I never intended for you to fall in love.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! That’s the lamest excuse in the book. Once you made us bond, the romance was inevitable. What you did is Reality TV 101: put a bunch of attractive young people in stressful situations so they act like idiots and have sex with each other. You were the one controlling all our actions. I never chose to fall in love with Chidi.”

“That’s not true. I didn’t make you say any of the stuff you saw. And besides, the question was never whether you chose to fall in love with him, it was whether or not you were capable of love. So you just disproved your own argument.”

Eleanor raised her voice at that, tightening her face briefly in frustration. “It doesn’t matter what the freaking question was anymore! None of it matters because none of it counts. It was all just you messing with our heads and making us believe we loved each other so you could crush us every time we figured out your plan. It doesn’t mean anything!” Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, making them burn with rage and pain, and she blinked them away feverishly. 

“Chaotic-evil-demon-you did get one thing right, though. There’s no way I could possibly hope to understand what love is.” She gave him one last scornful look before suddenly turning on her heel and storming out, biting back a weak sob on the last few words. 

Michael could tell just by the way her glassy eyes tried and failed to hide her vulnerability behind a harsh, piercing glare that she felt threatened and overwhelmed by everything she’d just been told, and honestly, who could blame her? She never asked to be caught up in any of this, and even though she was the one who wanted to see how the reboots would end, she couldn’t possibly have known what she was signing up for. He quickly decided he’d give her some space and some time to at least try to process everything. In the meantime, he sat in the section of the library with the fewest spiderwebs and thought of ways to try to persuade her that he’d changed and that she had too, both of their own volition. 

It ended up being more time than he’d intended solely because he had almost no idea where she’d run off to, and he doubted she did either. All her panicked mind knew was that she had to get away from where she was. Fortunately for him, there was a restaurant with a bar a couple of blocks away from the library, and suddenly a lightbulb went off in his head. He spotted her almost immediately after he walked in. She sat at the end of the bar, absentmindedly swirling a long, black straw in a tall glass of iced tea. She stared vacantly into the whirlpool of liquid and ice cubes, resting her chin lightly on her free hand. 

Michael approached her cautiously, as if she were a cornered animal looking to pounce. “Eleanor?” 

Her head snapped up at that and she shut her eyes tightly for a second, clearly startled out of whatever trance she had entered. Her eyes were rimmed with a noticeable reddish-pink, dark circles lining her eyelids. He had no idea how long she’d been crying, but he knew enough about human social interaction not to ask. 

“What do you want now, dude? You’ve already proven plenty to me.” Her voice was watery, breaking slightly as anger bubbled up inside her. 

“You know what? I don’t want to prove anything to you anymore. I spent three months and eight hundred reboots trying to prove myself to Shawn, to the other demons...to myself. It’s not worth it.”

“Then what are you still doing here? No matter what you were trying to prove or not prove, I already saw for myself that you forced me into caring about Chidi. You made me feel bad for him. I had no free will that whole time. None of us did then, and none of us do now.”

“I studied everything about your life. I know all your habits, hopes, attributes, memories. But what I don’t think you realize is I know everything about your subconscious, too. This is all a defense mechanism, Eleanor. You saw yourself fall in love with Chidi and it freaked you out to see yourself be so vulnerable, so you’re trying to convince yourself that those feelings weren’t real by claiming that free will is a hoax. This isn’t climate change, Eleanor. You can’t just pin everything on some arbitrary factors and keep ignoring the real problems.”

“Whatever, who even cares?”

“I do. Because if what you’re saying is true, and everything is predetermined, then this whole mission we’re on to save peoples’ souls is pointless, and I want to believe that it matters.” Michael paused for a moment, mentally preparing what to say next.

“I know you’ve seen a lot today that you probably shouldn’t have. But, please, if you’d take a look at one more reboot, maybe a little bit of that classic Eleanor fire will come back. Frankly, I miss it.”

“What makes you think this one will be any different? They all follow the same dumb blueprint. You make us think we’re making our own choices, when really you’re setting us up like rats in mazes.”

“I watched every single reboot over again in that dingy little library while you were gone. And this one truly stuck out to me. Not just because of my poorly groomed goatee and questionable fashion choices, but because it came at a point where I had no more answers for anything. I couldn’t anticipate anything you would do, so I willingly used up a reboot just so I could wrap my head around the fact that you kept outsmarting me at every turn. And now I want to show it to you, partly because it might pull you out of this deterministic wormhole, but partly because I care about you and Chidi, and I don’t want any fear or doubt to get in the way of what you have anymore. Also, if all else fails, I’ll just keep begging until you give in, and I know you really don’t want to see that.”

Eleanor cracked a half smile at that, although it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Michael took the earbuds out of his pocket and placed them lightly on the counter, setting the tablet down next to them. “It’s all cued up. Whenever you’re ready.”

Eleanor kept her eyes locked on Michael, expecting him to say something else, but instead he just took a step away from the counter, intending to give her some space but not wanting to leave her completely alone just yet. Her eyes wandered to the device on the table, her index finger absentmindedly rolling one of the earbuds closer and farther away from her. Even though he was far enough away that she couldn’t even see him in her peripheral vision, she thought she could still feel him breathing down her neck. Her thoughts raced with doubt, but no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t find the words to form a rebuttal anymore. She let out a deep sigh before shutting her eyes and placing the devices in her ears with unsteady hands. 

_ When Eleanor’s vision returned, she saw herself waking up on the simple white couch outside Michael’s office. Her eyes scanned the room, taking in the mundane details as her brain slowly started to return to consciousness. She clearly had no idea where she was or how she got there. She started to stand up slowly to investigate when the door suddenly creaked open.  _

_ “You, in here, now.” A disheveled, hungover-looking Michael gestured vaguely into the larger office as he lamely adjusted the collar on his wrinkled, unevenly buttoned shirt. Eleanor squinted in confusion as she followed him into the room, taking a seat next to Chidi, who was already in the room when she walked in. The pair met eyes and forced small, friendly smiles before simultaneously turning their heads back to the demon, who was now seated at the desk, his feet propped up atop the corner.  _

_ “You two…” he pointed at them, slowly twirling his finger in small circles as he let out a small sigh. “I just...I don’t get it.” _

_ “Don’t get what? Where are we? Who are you?” Chidi asked frantically, trying to make sense of the situation. _

_ “Hell. You’re in hell. It doesn’t matter anymore. How are you two just so...so...obnoxious? I’ve studied every single thing there is to know about you. I know you better than you know yourselves. I thought I could make some long, convoluted plan to rot your brains, but you two figured me out. So I made more stupid plans, and you two keep on finding each other no matter what I do. I just can’t think how else to explain it. I made up the entire forking concept of soulmates...people whose souls are inexorably linked. Maybe I pushed the concept onto you so much that somehow your subconscious held onto it.” _

_ “We’re soulmates?” Eleanor asked, her eyes widening. _

_ “Against literally all possible odds, apparently so. Imagine that. An all-powerful demon tied two useless humans’ souls together. How does that even work? What am I supposed to do now?” _

_ “But, we just met each other. How-” Chidi questioned before Michael interrupted him. _

_ “No, we’ve been through this...how many times now? 500? 600? Something like that. And now I see why my plans keep failing sooner and sooner. Your bond is getting stronger with each reboot. I had a 15 forking million point plan devised, and I’m running out of options. You keep making all these crazy choices I don’t understand.” _

_ “I’m sorry, wait, can we rewind for a second? Who even are you? Are we dead?” Eleanor asked, her voice filled with confusion and a touch of innocence.  _

_ “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Michael said, lethargically snapping his fingers and resetting the scene. Earth-Eleanor squinted her eyes shut as her vision went back to normal, but as she looked around, the restaurant was empty and Michael was nowhere to be seen. _

As Eleanor pulled the devices out of her ears, a waitress abruptly stopped wiping down a table and turned to face her. “Oh, good, you’re awake. Your friend is waiting out in your car for you. Said something about using his free will to pick someone up at the airport. I suggest you join him, we’re closing soon, and as soon as we do, they use this place for ‘adult films’.” She drew air quotes around the words to emphasize her sarcasm. Eleanor simply nodded in understanding, slowly gathering her things and making her way over to the car parked across the street. Michael said nothing to her as she slammed the door shut, so she said nothing in return. They rode in silence, not speaking to one another again until after they picked up Janet, Tahani, Jason, and Chidi from the airport. 

Eleanor stood off to the side as Michael helped the others load their bags, her gaze trained on Chidi. She wasn’t very good at hiding how lost in thought she was; Chidi picked up on it quickly, offering her a warm, sympathetic smile that made her heart skip a beat, as corny as it sounds. 

Maybe she shouldn’t keep questioning why or how they ended up together. Maybe she shouldn’t doubt if it’s real. Maybe she should just feel fortunate that he loved her and accepted her and wanted to be around her in some plane of existence and hope that maybe he feels the same way in this reality, too. 

She slowly made her way over to Michael, lacing her fingers together nervously. “I’m sorry. You were right. I was scared about what it all meant and I went back to one of my favorite moves. Turn on the ol’ blame hose.  _ This is all your fault! _ ” Eleanor whisper-shouted, pretending to spray a comically large firehose.

Michael smiled, happy to see some of Eleanor’s humor slowly returning to her. “Apology accepted. And I’m sorry you had to see all of that awful stuff I said about you guys.” 

“No, I get it, you were just trying to help in a weird, kinda terrifying demon way. But...I know you’re different now, and that’s what matters in the end. You changed for us.”

“On my own free will.” Michael smirked as Eleanor gave him a playful nudge in the side with her elbow. 

Eleanor glanced back at Chidi again, her chest filling with a subtle warmth. She might not know exactly what love is just yet, but she knows that she never wants this feeling to end, and whatever outside forces may or may not exist seem to agree with her.

And for right now, that’s all she needs to remember. 


End file.
